Bruce Chatwin (109 page)
Authors: Nicholas Shakespeare
Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #Literary, #Literary Collections, #Letters, #Literary Criticism, #General, #Diaries & Journals, #Personal Memoirs
It will be just
. . . EC to GC, 14.11.88
incorrigibly stylish
. . .
Independent
, 19.1.89
XLI: The Chatwin Effect
Heroic saga
. . . Box 34
I was delighted
. . . CW to EC, 23.1.89
J’apprends avec tristesse
. . . Jack Lang to EC, 20.1.89
Despite the large
. . . Richard Bull to EC, 22.1.89
I can’t write this letter, I’m afraid
. . . PL to EC, ND
The stars know
. . . Box 35
a sexuagenarian adolescent
. . .
WAIDH
, 143
Charley the Pioneer
. . .
IP
, 162
at about the time
. . .
With
Chatwin
, ix
Malraux’s breathless career
. . .
WAIDH
, 119
He was an inspiration to me
. . . Paul Theroux to EC, 26.1.89
Chatwin never delivered
. . .
TLS
, 16.6.89
a pose rather than
. . . Pfister, “Bruce Chatwin and the Postmodernization of the Travelogue”
In many ways
In Xanadu
. . . William Dalrymple to EC, 11.10.89
What would his life’s
. . .
Anecdotage
, 88
I wish I could
. . . BC to MB, 8.2.88
I think you know
. . . PL to EC, ND
This delight which
. . . Gillian Walker to EC, ND
Real love was
. . . SC to EC, 10.3.89
He would have found someone
. . . EC to SC, ND
The coffin
. . . Miranda Rothschild to NS, 1.2.97
It is nearly springtime now
. . . MR to EC, 1.2.89
Epilogues
Ah, Chatwin
. . . told to Mary Henderson
Elizabeth’s disbelief
. . . Hugh Chatwin to GA, Box 38, 17.8.89
Kansas is a
. . . Joyce Khan to EC, ND
The most complete Bruce Chatwin bibliography appears in
Anatomy of Restlessness: Selected Writings 1969–89
(Jonathan Cape, 1996).
Anatomy of Restlessness: Selected Writings 1969–89
(Jonathan Cape, 1996).
A CHATWIN READING LIST
Aksakov, Sergei:
A Russian Gentleman; A Russian Schoolboy; Years of Childhood
Aubrey, John:
Brief Lives
Auden, W.H.: ‘A Certain World’
Babur, Zahirud-Din-Muhammad:
The Babur-Nama
Bail, Murray:
Fairweather
Basho, Matsuo:
The Narow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches
Benjamin, Walter:
Illuminations
Bernhard, Thomas:
Gargoyles; Wittgenstein’s Nephew: A Friendship
Borges, Jorge Luis:
Ficciones
Bunin, Ivan:
Dark Avenues; The Gentleman from San Francisco
Burton, Richard:
A Mission to Gelele; King of Dahomey
Byron, Robert:
The Road to Oxiana
Celtic Nature Poetry
Cendrars, Blaise:
Moravagine; The Trans-siberien
Chekhov, Anton:
Stories
Cioran, E.M.:
De l’inconvenience d’être Né
Connolly, Cyril:
The Unquiet Grave
Dana, Richard Henry:
Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of Life at Sea
Dodds, E.R.:
The Greeks and the Irrational
Donne, John:
Poems
Doorly, Eleanor:
The Radium Woman, The Insect Man
Flaubert, Gustave: ‘Un coeur simple’;
Madame Bovary
Gadda, Carlo Emilio:
That Awful Mess on via Merulana
Heidegger, Martin:
Being and Time
Hemingway, Ernest:
To Have and Have Not; In Our Time
Herzog, Werner:
On Walking in Ice
Jerbauld, Alain:
In Quest of the Sun
Joyce, James:
Dubliners
Jünger, Ernst:
On the Marble Cliffs; Storm of Steel; Strahlungen
: War diary from Paris occupation (not in English)
Lawrence, D. H.:
Sea and Sardinia; Etruscan Places
Lermontov, Mikhail:
A Hero of Our Time
Lévi-Strauss, Claude:
Tristes Tropiques
Llosa, Mario Vargas:
The Perpetual Orgy: Flaubert and Madame Bovary
Lucas, E. V.:
The Open Road
Malaparte, Curzio:
Kaputt
Mandelstam, Osip:
Journey to Armenia; The Prose of Osip Mandelstam
(trans. Clarence Brown)
McCullers, Carson:
The Ballad of the Sad Café
Melville, Herman:
Typee
De Monfried, Henri:
Hashish
Morand, Paul:
Close the Night
Neri, Michele:
Afrique Fantôme
O’Connor, Flannery:
Complete Stories
Orwell, George:
Homage to Catalonia
Powell, Dilys:
An Affair of the Heart
Radiguet, Raymond:
Le Bal du Comte d’Orgel
Salih, Tayeb:
Season of Migration of the North
Satta, Salvatore:
The Day of Judgement
Simpson, Gaylord:
Attending Marvels
Singer, I.B.:
Stories
Sinyavsky, Andrei:
A Voice from the Chorus
Sitwell, Edith:
A Poet’s Notebook; Planet and Glow-Worm; A Book of the Winter
Skertchley, Joseph:
Dahomey as It Is
Slocum, Joshua:
Sailing Alone around the World
Shonagon, Sei:
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
(Translated: Ivan Morris)
Spengler, Oswald:
The Decline of the West
Stevenson, Robert Louis:
An Inland Voyage
Taylor, Jeremy:
Holy Living; Holy Dying
Thesiger, Wilfred:
Desert, Marsh and Mountain: World of a Nomad
Tolstoy, L. N.:
The Death of Ivan Ilyich & Other Stories
Tournier, Michel:
Friday; The Other Island; The Erl King
Turgenev, Ivan:
A Sportsman’s Notebook
Voss, John C.:
The Venturesome Voyages of Captain Voss
Wilson, Edmund:
Black Brown Red and Olive
Footnotes
‘To return to the corresponding text, click on the asterisk and reference number.’
Chapter VII
*
Research has not been able to verify this, but Bruce was always going to tea with Avebury Manor’s owner, Sir Francis “Sissy” Knowles, the school’s head of biology and an expert on prawn’s eyes.
Research has not been able to verify this, but Bruce was always going to tea with Avebury Manor’s owner, Sir Francis “Sissy” Knowles, the school’s head of biology and an expert on prawn’s eyes.
Chapter VIII
*
Utz, the Prague collector, also “had a poorly paid job as a cataloguer in the National Library”.
Utz, the Prague collector, also “had a poorly paid job as a cataloguer in the National Library”.
Chapter XV
*
A quantity was sold at Sotheby’s. Between 1965 and 1977, items continued to trickle through the Antiquities department. Marcus Linell remembers paying Stella in cash – which she carried out in a suitcase. The pieces were on the whole average.
A quantity was sold at Sotheby’s. Between 1965 and 1977, items continued to trickle through the Antiquities department. Marcus Linell remembers paying Stella in cash – which she carried out in a suitcase. The pieces were on the whole average.
Chapter XVIII
*1
Bruce may have read of Ronald Firbank’s infatuation for Evan Morgan, recorded by Ifan Kyrle Fletcher in his 1930 memoir. Firbank, finding in Morgan’s features “an amazing resembling” to the mummy of Rameses, had hurried him off to the British Museum to see “his original”. His interest became almost an obsession. He came to believe that Evan Morgan was a reincarnation of Rameses, and must, therefore, be possessed of cosmic secrets.
Bruce may have read of Ronald Firbank’s infatuation for Evan Morgan, recorded by Ifan Kyrle Fletcher in his 1930 memoir. Firbank, finding in Morgan’s features “an amazing resembling” to the mummy of Rameses, had hurried him off to the British Museum to see “his original”. His interest became almost an obsession. He came to believe that Evan Morgan was a reincarnation of Rameses, and must, therefore, be possessed of cosmic secrets.
*2
When the Willey Expedition published its report two years later, Bruce sent a letter to
The Times
“in high dudgeon and irony – so high they won’t publish it”. The report registered its dismay at the effect of hashish on European hippies who were reduced to “begging like dogs” in “sun-drenched squares that reek of death and decay”. Willey appealed to the United Nations to stop the twin evils of slavery and narcotics: “We are facing a sinister situation that is capable of infinite expansion with appalling consequences.”
When the Willey Expedition published its report two years later, Bruce sent a letter to
The Times
“in high dudgeon and irony – so high they won’t publish it”. The report registered its dismay at the effect of hashish on European hippies who were reduced to “begging like dogs” in “sun-drenched squares that reek of death and decay”. Willey appealed to the United Nations to stop the twin evils of slavery and narcotics: “We are facing a sinister situation that is capable of infinite expansion with appalling consequences.”
Chapter XXV
*
“I have been thinking of you a lot, day and night, all the time – don’t forget me
I do my love my beautiful
, I really want to hug you, kiss you, feel your body that makes me feel so good. When it’s cold I think about going out to look for you so that you can warm me, warm my body with your heat, but suddenly I remember that it’s impossible to meet you because you are such a long way from me.”
“I have been thinking of you a lot, day and night, all the time – don’t forget me
I do my love my beautiful
, I really want to hug you, kiss you, feel your body that makes me feel so good. When it’s cold I think about going out to look for you so that you can warm me, warm my body with your heat, but suddenly I remember that it’s impossible to meet you because you are such a long way from me.”
Chapter XXVIII
*
In British paperback
The Viceroy of Ouidah
– for which Maschler had paid a £2,500 advance – has sold 91,135, compared with 114,689 for
Utz,
245,953 for
In Patagonia,
313,791 for
On the Black Hill
and 355,992 for
The Songlines
.
In British paperback
The Viceroy of Ouidah
– for which Maschler had paid a £2,500 advance – has sold 91,135, compared with 114,689 for
Utz,
245,953 for
In Patagonia,
313,791 for
On the Black Hill
and 355,992 for
The Songlines
.
Chapter XXXVII
*
Bruce takes part of his description of Utz’s flat from one of the bedrooms in the Chanlers’ New York apartment at 1 E84, a whole floor which Gertrude bought after the sale of Meridian House in 1966.
Bruce takes part of his description of Utz’s flat from one of the bedrooms in the Chanlers’ New York apartment at 1 E84, a whole floor which Gertrude bought after the sale of Meridian House in 1966.
Chapter XXXIX
*1
Herzog was not the only film-maker interested in
The Viceroy of Ouidah.
In August 1985, David Bowie tried to buy the film rights.
Herzog was not the only film-maker interested in
The Viceroy of Ouidah.
In August 1985, David Bowie tried to buy the film rights.
*2
Robert Mapplethorpe collapsed into a pathological form of collecting at the end and was wheeled to auctions. The same was true of Loulou de la Falaise’s stepfather. “He didn’t have a penny and went round buying jewels and my mother had to take them back.”
Robert Mapplethorpe collapsed into a pathological form of collecting at the end and was wheeled to auctions. The same was true of Loulou de la Falaise’s stepfather. “He didn’t have a penny and went round buying jewels and my mother had to take them back.”
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